The Dell XPS 13 2016 (9350) is the third-generation model of the XPS 13 line. The laptop is available in both a standard edition with Windows installed as well as a Developer Edition which only differs in that it comes with Ubuntu installed as well as the Broadcom WiFi card replaced with an Intel WiFi card. Just like the older versions (Dell XPS 13 (9333) and Dell XPS 13 (9343)) it can be bought in different hardware configurations.

The installation process for Arch on the XPS 13 does not differ from any other PC. For installation help, please see the Installation guide and UEFI. This page covers the current status of hardware support on Arch, as well as post-installation recommendations.

Content adaptive brightness control

In the XPS 13 the display panels (both FHD and QHD+) come with adaptive brightness embedded in the panel firmware, this "content adaptive brightness control" (usually referred to as CABC or DBC) will adjust the screen brightness depending on the content displayed on the screen and will generally be found undesirable, especially for Linux users who are likely to be switching between dark and light screen content. Dell has issued a fix for this however it is only available to run in Windows and for the QHD+ model of the laptop so this precaution should be taken before installing Linux, the FHD model of the XPS 13 (9350) cannot be fixed. This is not a problem with the panel but rather a problem with the way the panels are configured for the XPS 13, as the same panel exists in the Dell's Latitude 13 7000 series (e7370) FHD model but with CABC disabled. The fix is available directly from Dell.

BIOS

The most convenient way to install Arch Linux is by disabling "Secure Boot" (Secure Boot > Disable). However it is possible to self-sign your kernel and boot with it enabled. For further information have a look at the Secure Boot article.

In case your efivars are not properly set it is most likely due to you not being booted into UEFI. Should the problem persist be sure to consult the UEFI#UEFI variables section.

Updates

BIOS update 1.9.0 was released on 2018-11-05. Store the update binary on your EFI partition (/boot/EFI) or on a USB flash drive, reboot, and choose BIOS Update in the F12 boot menu. This might also help if your machine will not resume after suspend.

Firmware Updates

Dell provides firmware updates via Linux Vendor Firmware Service (LVFS). Refer to Flashing BIOS from Linux#fwupd for additional information. A package is readily available at fwupd.

Thunderbolt 3 / USB 3.1

The USB-C port supports Thunderbolt 3, Displayport-over-USB-C and USB power delivery as well as USB 3.1.

In the event of devices not working correctly, ensure that you have updated to the latest BIOS (above) and Thunderbolt firmware (below).

Dell is working on a fwupd extension (github repository) that allows updating Thunderbolt software from Linux.

Alternatively, the Thunderbolt 3 Firmware Update 4.26.11.001, A08 was released on 2018-04-05. Unlike the BIOS update and the Thunderbolt-nvm Linux update, this is a graphical application which must be run in a modern Windows environment (MS-DOS will not suffice) or you can attempt the procedure below (at your own risks).

Hotplug support for this port requires a bug fix which landed in kernel version 4.7. It also requires the kernel to be built with CONFIG_PCI_HOTPLUG=y.

The thunderbolt updates are a bit more complicated to do than the UEFI updates. The following was tested on kernel 4.16.13. You need to download the Thunderbolt update executable then extract the files from it:

$ 7z x Intel_TBT3_FW_UPDATE_NVM26_FJJK7_A08_4.26.11.001.exe

If you don't have any thunderbolt device plugged in, you need to force the controller on

The system may hang for a few seconds, and after a moment, if you read nvm_version again, it should show the new version number.

External screen

Support for external screens either using an USB-C to HDMI or USB-C to Mini Display ports adapters may not be working properly. Commonly the screen when plugged is reported to either:

display an image for a few milliseconds then switch to a black screen;

have no image at all;

being flickering after a few minutes to the extent this is basically unusable.

In some cases intermittent external monitor connection may be caused by WiFi interference with the 9350's USB-C port--particularly when the lid is closed. Reducing WiFi power via iw or iwconfig may allow a steady external monitor connection.

SATA controller

When the SATA-controller is set to RAID On in Bios, the hard disk (at least the SSD) is not recognized. Set to Off or AHCI (AHCI is recommended) before attempting to install Arch.

Dual booting Linux and Windows

In order to boot into Windows properly without getting an INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE error with disabled RAID you must configure Windows to use the AHCI-speaking SATA storage controller, assuming you used AHCI for installing Linux. The driver is effectively disabled even though it is installed. Either of the following methods were reported to activate the drivers without reinstallation (your mileage may vary):

Note on Mount Options

Wireless

For the non-developer edition, the built-in Broadcom BCM4350 is now supported in the current linux kernel (as of version 4.4.1-1). The wireless module brcmfmac also needs the firmware brcmfmac4350-pcie.bin from the related linux-firmware package.

Bluetooth

Intel WiFi

If your WiFi card supports Bluetooth, then the BT interface should be available out-of-the-box, as the required firmware is included in linux-firmware.

Broadcom Wifi

Bluetooth should work right away. Load the module btusb and bluetooth if it was not already and start/enablebluetooth.service. Refer to Bluetooth for more information and configuration options.

Note: The Broadcom brcmfmac kernel module causes issues with Dell USB-C docks. Notably, the USB ports and ethernet connection will stop working when there are WiFi connection issues.

Wireless headset: strange bluetooth behavior

If your Bluetooth behaves unstable, such as connection loss, stuttering sound. being able to connect but not to listen through it, etc. you probably need the proprietary firmware.

The Broadcom Bluetooth firmware is not available in the kernel (the same as for the 2015 model source), therefore you will have to retrieve it from a Windows .exe. You need to extract the .exe file with p7zip and then convert it to a .hcd file with hex2hcd from bluez-utils:

Linux kernel 4.8 or later power savings

Warning: The following options of the i915 module taint the kernel, use at your own risks!

RC6

i915.enable_rc6=1 seems to be stable, setting the value to a number higher than 1, will be ignored. The deeper GPU power states that this option enables (RC6p and RC6pp) do not exist on gen7+ hardware.[1][2].

Panel Self Refresh

i915.enable_psr=1 allows for some really nice power savings by leaving the package longer in more efficient C-states. However, users experience freezes for a few seconds with this option fairly often, setting the value to 2 or 3 may yield to similar power savings but without the freezes.
i915.disable_power_well=0 with i915.enable_psr=1 i915.enable_rc6=1 also seems to be a stable configuration for PSR.

Frame Buffer Compression

i915.enable_fbc=1 is stable but does not seem to yield significant power saving results.

GuC

Linux kernel 4.5 or earlier

If you have the newer i7-6560 CPU with Iris 540 graphics, the GPU hangs every few minutes with kernel versions before 4.6. This is probably due to this bug https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=94161 and can be countered by either disabling DRI in your Xorg configuration:

Touchpad

Only key-presses work out of the box. Installing xf86-input-libinput is sufficient for proper mouse support plus it also handles the touchscreen - see libinput for configuration. Features such as tap-to-click are usually adjustable within the desktop environment.

Gestures

Refer to libinput#Gestures for information about the current development state and available methods.

Sound

Coil whine when using headphones

When using TLP and audio is not playing but headphones are plugged in you may experience extremely annoying whine when using the computer. This happens after the audio adapter power saving is enabled. By default TLP sets the timeout on battery to 1 second which will cause whining almost as soon as sound is paused. To remedy this you can edit /etc/default/tlp to set a higher timeout or disable it:

SOUND_POWER_SAVE_ON_AC=300
SOUND_POWER_SAVE_ON_BAT=300

High noise floor when using headphones

Some people reported white hissing/crackling noises when using headphones. To get rid of them you can run alsamixer from alsa-utils.
Select your soundcard with F6 and set the headset-gain to 22 (3rd lever from the left) or use the amixer command:

Unfortunately PulseAudio will override the above setting every time you log in/out of your environment (or every time the PulseAudio service is restarted), even if the alsa-restore.service is enabled at start up.

To work around this issue, edit /usr/share/pulseaudio/alsa-mixer/paths/analog-input-headphone-mic.conf and comment out the section [Element Headphone Mic Boost]:

Similarly in /usr/share/pulseaudio/alsa-mixer/paths/analog-input-internal-mic.conf, comment out the same section:

---
#[Element Headphone Mic Boost]
#switch = off
#volume = off
---

This will prevent PulseAudio to fiddle with the gain setting at all.

Note: Unfortunately, you must make the same modifications every time the PulseAudio package is updated. Additionally, this will entirely disable the internal microphone.

Microphone

Note: Not all hardware has the "Digital" channel

For ALSA, increase "Digital" channel for microphone to work.

TPM

As shipped the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) can be configured easily following the steps at Trusted Platform Module and requires no otherwise special configuration. Handy packages to use with the TPM are tpm-toolsAUR and trousersAUR.

TPM 2.0

Originally the Dell XPS 13 (9350) shipped with TPM 1.2 - the TPM chip was configured to support the TPM Standard version 1.2. However, Dell released a firmware update (internal version 1.3.2.8, A02) for the TPM chip that converts it to support the feature set of TPM Standard version 2.0. Unfortunately, as of this moment the update cannot be applied through Linux or the BIOS direct flashing capabilities. The only way to install it seems to be to apply it through a running Windows OS. The easiest method is to run a temporary Windows installation on a USB drive, boot into it and run the update from there.

Note: It should be noted that this update is reversible once applied. To revert back to TPM 1.2 by using a firmware update It also requires that the TPM memory and configuration is completely cleared.

Note: As for BIOS updates, please make sure the laptop is plugged in to a power source and that power source is stable.

To install the update one can follow the instructions on the above mentioned firmware update page to clear and reset the TPM chip and initiate the update. Users intending to later use the device in Linux, can skip the last steps 11 & 12 from section "Disable TPM Auto Provisioning in Windows". Another option is to just clear the TPM following this guide and just run the .exe file from Windows.

Once the update succeeds, the Linux kernel should automatically recognise the newly configured TPM device and enable it automatically on next boot. To make use of the now TPM 2.0 chip a couple of packages are worth installing - tpm2-tss-gitAUR and tpm2-tools-gitAUR. To make the TSS resource manager work on boot, a handy systemd service is provided and its variants discussed here.

CPU slowdown after resume from suspend

If you are experiencing a very slow computer after resume from suspend, you may be subject to a bug where your CPU frequency is capped to a very low value. Use cpupower frequency-info to check. If so, please read this forum thread for debug information, and a workaround.